WordPress vs Squarespace – Which Is A Better Choice For Your Business Website?

We are aware that in this online environment, possessing a high-quality and well-designed website is necessary. To make a website look good you need the best Content Management System.

In this blog, we have sorted out the key aspects of the famous Content Management Systems, Squarespace and WordPress. At the end of the blog, you will get a precise idea on which CMS to choose for your business.

Before getting into the topic, let’s understand the difference between a website builder and a Content Management System (CMS) as they both help to build websites easily.

Squarespace and WordPress- A short introduction

The quick answer is, WordPress is a Content Management System and Squarespace is a website builder.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a SaaS (Software as a Service) website builder for which you have to pay on a monthly basis. Squarespace holds two versions, one for developers allowing them to access the source code and another standard version for those who don’t have web development skills. It provides templates, hosting services, e-commerce support, technical support, domain registration and more.

WordPress

The hosted WordPress is similar to Squarespace but, it is not all in one Saas tool. You can access a lot of features to build and maintain your website but, some e-commerce features require additional third-party tools. You may also have to pay extra for some attractive themes.

The self-hosted WordPress is an open source software which can be installed on your web server. It is flexible and has a number of plugins and templates. The installation is completely free but, hosting, domain, and sometimes plugins are chargeable.

Which platform has a simple setup process?

To set up a Squarespace based website, you have to log in to Squarespace.com and get started. Then you have to pick a theme. You will get your domain hosting along with fourteen days free trial and can pay anytime within these 14 days. Now, you can edit the themes as per your requirement

To set up a WordPress based website, you have to download WordPress and install it on the server. Now you have to connect to a database and run the setup wizard. Then, you have to find a theme and edit as per your requirement.

Squarespace vs WordPress cost comparison

Now let us pick the self-hosted version from WordPress and standard version from Squarespace to compare cost.

Squarespace

Squarespace has four basic pricing plans such as personal plan, business plan, basic plan, and advanced plan. It also includes a 14-day free trial to check whether this platform suits your business.

These packages include the cost of domain name and hosting and you will not be charged extra for these. To learn more about Squarespace pricing in detail click here.

WordPress

WordPress is free of installation cost. But, the first step to build your website is to purchase your domain name server and hosting. There are several hosting providers like Bluehost, HostGator, GoDaddy, and more. To learn more about different hosting providers and their prices click here.

In addition to the hosting cost, you need to pay for some pro themes and plugins to make your website the best one. For example if you want to create a medical website,

Theme called Medicare cost – $59, custom theme development may cost more

Integration cost for e-commerce in Ecwid – $180/ annum

Plugin cost for Bookly – $89, again custom plugin development may cost more

Squarespace vs WordPress SEO comparison

Squarespace

Squarespace has certain limitations while stepping into SEO and some of them are listed below.

There are some troubles in adding trailing slashes on the end of the URL

XML sitemaps cannot be edited and the style information of XML sites are blank. Also, you will not be able to alter the priorities of pages and blogs.

Image ‘Alt’ tags cannot be changed. A fresh page cannot be redirected to another page, only the 404 pages can be redirected to existing URLs. Due to high page loading time, there is a risk of a drop in search engine rankings.

WordPress

WordPress is an SEO expert with a lot of unique SEO plugins like Yoast which helps to improve your SEO efforts. There are a lot of advantages in WordPress SEO like,

Customize metadata – Using WordPress you can create unique title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs that can be optimized as per your requirement. You can optimize every page and even blog posts for SEO using some default plugins like Yoast SEO, Broken Link Checker, Google XML Sitemaps, etc.

Squarespace vs WordPress for e-commerce

Squarespace

Squarespace has an excellent built-in e-commerce system. It can help to build an e-commerce website quickly but, it has some limitations like,

Payment gateways – Squarespace is limited to PayPal and Stripe. Also, Stripe is not employed in certain countries by the merchants.

Advanced features – It does not include any inbuilt features for advanced online retailing and e-commerce reporting functionality.

Migration – Some issues may arise while migrating digital products to different platforms.

To overcome these limitations, you can add some code blocks to integrate additional e-commerce services. Most of the Squarespace users choose Ecwid and Shopify as they have latest e-commerce functionalities.

WordPress

WordPress doesn’t have any in-built e-commerce system. Instead, there are several e-commerce plugins available. People mostly choose Ecwid, Shopp, and WooCommerce plugins to build their e-commerce websites in WordPress. Also, the well-known e-commerce platform, BigCommerce is also offering plugins for WordPress.

Which platform to choose when it comes to features?

Squarespace

Squarespace has a lot of website designs and you can customize it easily. We have listed some unique features below,

Provides 24/7 support

In-built modules for e-commerce, blogging, and portfolio galleries

WYSIWYG editing is available

Involves website traffic statistics

Includes integrated image editor and social media features

WordPress

WordPress has both paid and free designs which you can add and modify. Some unique features of WordPress are listed below,

Advanced content management abilities

Manual HTML editing options are available

Basic image editing integrations are available

SEO features, traffic statistics, and social media integrations are available through plugins

Which platform has a huge number of choices in themes?

Squarespace

Squarespace has almost 70 ready-made templates for portfolios, online stores, blogs, weddings, restaurants and more which work better than any other competing website building platforms. It has only a limited amount of templates because they make sure to include only the perfectly-formed collection which covers a good range of industries. These templates are easy to customize due to its ‘click and change’ interface.

WordPress

WordPress has 1000’s of free and paid templates. You will have a wide variety of options. Always make sure to purchase your template from a reputable source because some templates may contain malicious codes which can harm the security of your website. If you have any plans to create custom theme, check out our custom theme development services to know more.

Squarespace or WordPress, which is more secure?

Squarespace is a hosted solution and hence, the company has the entire responsibility to secure your website from hackers and ensure that the data backups are kept secured. There is a chance of DoS (distributed denial of service) attacks in the company server but, the company will take responsibility to fix those issues.

In WordPress, if you choose a reputable hosting company, you don’t have to worry about security issues. If you are not employing a developer or an agency to manage your website, then you have to take responsibility for your site’s security. You should also make sure to update to current version of WordPress else, there is a chance of being hacked.

Which platform has the best mobile applications?

Squarespace

Squarespace is for smartphone lovers. It has five mobile applications available to manage some aspects of your website.

Blog – With blog application, you can publish blogs on your website using your mobile phones

Portfolio – With the portfolio, you can download the content in Squarespace gallery to your mobile phone. This helps you to display your works to others at any time even in the absence of an internet connection

Commerce – With commerce, you can maintain some basic aspects of your e-commerce website through your mobile phone

Note – With note, you can take notes and publish content to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and more well-known cloud services. This application can be used even if you don’t have a Squarespace account.

WordPress

WordPress has a single application by which you can manage different aspects of your websites. The application includes the below features,

Editing – There is an app for creating and editing pages or posts using mobile phones

Media insertion – It can also help you in uploading media files

Moderating comments – You can even make modifications in comments

View stats – Statistics can also be viewed through mobile phones

Which platform enhances mobile responsiveness?

All Squarespace templates are built with responsive designs. The templates can resize themselves automatically according to the mobile screen sizes. This responsiveness can be obtained by turning AMP format on all the blog posts

In WordPress, you can include AMP format and use it in blog posts as well as in all other pages. Some of the famous plugins for mobile responsiveness are,

Touchy

Superfly

AMP

Is customer support available in WordPress and Squarespace?

Squarespace

In Squarespace, there are some impressive customer support features like,

Exciting knowledge base – Squarespace has an excellent knowledge base with all complex structured and unstructured information which can solve any problem

Live chat support – Support team can assist you via live chats

Email support – You can submit your queries and get solutions through emails

Community forum – There are community forums where experts will discuss a specific topic to bring out the solution

24/7 support – All the above-mentioned supports are available 24/7

WordPress

WordPress doesn’t provide any support. Instead, there are a lot of tutorials, videos, forums, and blogs online which provide the complete guideline to create, maintain and manage your WordPress websites.

Some interesting statistics about WordPress and Squarespace

Statistics helps you to choose the better usage method. You will be able to find out the growth and future impact of a specific industry. According to the statistics from What CMS, it is clear that WordPress dominates all other Content Management System(s).

The total number of domains in Squarespace is 43,900 and its Content Management System market share percentage is 4.339%.

In WordPress, there are 968,066 domains and it’s Content Management System market share is 95.68%.

This statistics shows that WordPress is the most engaging platform.

Overview

We have compiled down some of the basic beneficial features here so that you can understand the basic functionality of both platforms.

Squarespace

It is easy to use and doesn’t require any coding knowledge

Requires only less maintenance because the company is responsible for security issues

Provides 24/7 customer support

It is easy to set-up

Provides hosting

It has an in-built e-commerce tool

WordPress

It is flexible and customizable. If you have coding knowledge, then there are a lot of options to customize your entire website.

Lots of themes and features are available

URLs and even XML sitemaps can be edited

There are a huge number of plugins available for all features including e-commerce

Increases the SEO efforts of the website

It has the leading CMS marketing share with 95.68%

Should I choose Squarespace or WordPress?

We recommend WordPress because it helps you to build any type of website as per your requirement. Any feature like improving the security of your website can be added with available WordPress plugins. You have plenty of themes choices as well. Thus, if you want a stunning website with amazing features, you can choose WordPress.

On the other hand, if you require only limited features with a simple design you can choose Squarespace. The major advantage of Squarespace is security. If your website is an e-commerce website with basic features, then we would recommend Squarespace. It is very easy to build a basic e-commerce website using Squarespace.

Thus we conclude that WordPress comes out with a lot of choices, even beginners can use it easily. Squarespace has limited customizing options. It depends upon your business type and the style of website you require.

Can I transfer a Squarespace website to WordPress and a WordPress website to Squarespace?

Absolutely yes! Some users want to change their decisions after experiencing a platform. For those people here are the complete guides which explain the procedure of transferring from one platform to another.

How can ColorWhistle help you in building Squarespace or WordPress websites?

At ColorWhistle, we have worked on both the platforms. After analyzing your business type we will recommend the best platform for your business and work accordingly to produce the best results. Also, we employ all the required pro themes and plugins to make your website an outstanding one. If you need any assistance, feel free to contact us anytime.

Do you have any queries or suggestions? We would love to hear back from you.

About the Author - Srividhya

Srividhya is a copywriter at ColorWhistle. She’s passionate about writing blogs related to web development, web designing, online marketing, and more. In her spare time, she works out or paints.